While the number of Maine anglers has increased in recent years, the number of hunters continues to decline. Let’s start with hunters. I looked at data from 2001 to 2017. Hunting numbers for residents was highest in 2003, at 166,675. Read More

“Couldn’t be more proud of @BlackBearsFB. Tough one today, but we will be back!” @javelhoff makes three points in his Tweet. I agree with the first two. I am “proud”. And it was a “tough one”. But how is he so sure “we will be… Read More

Mincemeat has been around for centuries, a way to preserve meat during butchering season, taking all the small tough bits, cooking them well, then chopping them finely and mixing them with apples, raisins, suet, cider or brandy, spices, sometimes candied fruit peels, and making… Read More

Playing a game at the tournament site will give the coaches, players, and teams a chance to get on the floor, which is a lot different to play on when compared to their high school gymnasiums. Read More

How many times have you stood beside someone on the water and out fished them using the same fly. You both are doing the same thing, like a mirror image of one another but one person is catching all the fish and the other isn’t even getting a… Read More

I’ve written four books that I hope might make your Christmas wish list, and/or be gifts you purchase for others. My first book, A Life Lived Outdoors, published by IslandPort Press, is a collection of favorite columns about home, camp, and Maine life, including stories about… Read More

Elizabeth Kolbert writes in this week’s New Yorker about nations’ continuing and worsening habit of pretending to care about climate change amidst mounting, blinding evidence that the planet is in greater and more imminent danger than previously thought. It’s my biggest beef with both apathetic voters who… Read More

The idea of rent seeking by companies is a common theme of Stirring the Pot. Rent seeking occurs when firms or whole industry groups lobby government bodies to fix the rules of the market to benefit one particular firm or group of firms. This can be as… Read More

Long ago I overheard a conversation that has stuck with me for years. Immediately after meeting me, a question was snarkily asked, “Is he always on like that?” That hurt for about a minute, but the friend who’d introduced us divorced him not long after that. Read More

Last week’s events have shed light on several issues, including the dynamics of U.S.-Canadian relations, global international trade, and the American presidency. The past and the present continue to communicate with each other as media and other propaganda systems try to force us to focus on their current… Read More

Have you found your Christmas dinner to be lacking in ingenuity or flavor? I have found some of the most unique traditions from around the world that you could bring to the table this year to really throw a curveball at the holidays. Read More